1901: Logical

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Logical

Title text: It's like I've always said--people just need more common sense. But not the kind of common sense that lets them figure out that they're being condescended to by someone who thinks they're stupid, because then I'll be in trouble.

Explanation

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White Hat says that problems in society could be avoided if people relied on logic and science rather than feelings -- but when Cueball asks him what study he is relying to prove that, White Hat has no study to prove that and relies on his own feelings, without realizing that he himself is doing what he just denounced.

Transcript

White Hat: We wouldn't have all these problems if people just learned to be more logical and science-driven instead of relying on feelings.

Cueball: Oh? What study are you basing that on?

White Hat: It just seems obvious!

White Hat: I mean, look at the crap these idiots believe!

Title Text: It's like I've always said--people just need more common sense. But not the kind of common sense that lets them figure out that they're being condescended to by someone who thinks they're stupid, because then I'll be in trouble.

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Discussion

Potentially relevant: [1] Potentially relevant: [2] Potentially relevant: [3] Joshupetersen (talk) 16:00, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

-- Link 1 points to a 1952 paper which demonstrates that "scientists" live longer with the top 6 occupations being Educators, Lawyers, Engineers, Naturalists, Historians and Inventors ... seems a pretty loose definition of scientist to me. --Rtanenbaum (talk) 17:39, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Added the title text to the explanation and transcript. --JayRulesXKCD ^{what's up?} 16:06, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

For the record I believe the advantages of using statistics over intuition were thoroughly discussed in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball, also 538 has done studies comparing statistical approaches to election prediction to political punditry and finally the good old Monty Hall Problem.Sturmovik (talk) 16:22, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

"... inconclusive scientific evidence against White Hat's position"? Is "inconclusive" the best you can do? Or did you mean "only inconclusive"? Randall is basically attempting to use an argument from silence against anyone asserting White Hat's basic position (for which there is some very good evidence). It's ironic that to argue against the position requires using the law of non-contradiction; hence is self refuting. 198.41.238.52 22:41, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

The joke isn't that rational decision-making is bad, it's that many of those who aggressively espouse the importance of rational decision-making and deride the influence of emotions are rarely as rational and logical in their decision-making as they like to think they are.

If nothing else, a truly rational thinker would realize that for better or worse people ARE affected by emotional cues and that as such subtly insulting those you're speaking to is not a good way to influence opinions and change decisions.

And a truly self-aware rational thinker would realize that the vehemence of his later complaints about how people are illogical and emotional might have less to do with the objective importance of rationality and more to do with his own feelings being hurt because his opinions were ignored or derided.

But surely that doesn't apply to anybody here and any sensation of defensiveness that might occur comes from a place of pure logic and reason, right?162.158.178.165 15:42, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

This comic is probably a response to the Nobel prize in economics awarded to Richard Thaler for finding ways to nudge people to decisions that the nudger believes to be more common sense.--162.158.88.188 09:23, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

The problem with generalizations is that all of them are idiotic.--162.158.111.151 12:14, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

... including the one you just used :-). -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:49, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

*Whoosh!*141.101.98.172 11:55, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

*Whoosh!* 172.68.34.190 03:00, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

f Nafedalbi (talk) 12:43, 6 May 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi